Heretofore, in the fracturing of relatively shallow wells (e.g. wells up to a depth of approximately 2500 feet) it has been common practice to position a packer apparatus in the well, set the packer apparatus, and then apply the fracturing fluid down through the attached tubing or piping and through the packer assembly vertically downwardly, whereby the fracturing fluid is then applied outwardly to the formation via the lower end of the packer assembly. In such procedure, each zone of the well bore being fractured in the formation must generally be isolated, and in order to accomplish this, gravel is generally pumped or poured down the well bore to act as an artificial bottom to isolate the zone being worked on from the zones traversing the well bore therebelow. The fracturing fluid, which may be water, delivers the pressure from the upper surface to the intended zone in the well bore, and enables the fracturing of the formation. When the formation breaks, water with a mixture of grit is usually pumped into the fracture to hold the fracture "open" thus facilitating and allowing any gas and oil to seep from the fracture into the well bore; thereafter more gravel is pumped out the piping or tubing to lower the artificial bottom while the packer is deactuated and moved downwardly in the well bore to a new lower zone, and then the packer is reset in conjunction with the lowering of the artificial bottom, for fracturing the new zone in the well bore.
This process is continued until the well bore has been fractured and the gas and oil in the fractured zones can then seep into the well bore, the gravel forming the artificial bottoms having been removed by pumping or sucking it out.
While fracturing laterally through a pipe and intermediate vertically spaced packer sealing elements is known, as for instance from U.S. Pat. No. 2,716,454 to G. F. Abendroth dated Aug. 20, 1955 and entitled Fracturing Formations Selectively, heretofore to applicant's knowledge no one has controlled the application of fracturing fluid to a zone of a formation utilizing a lateral opening in the sealing member of a packer.